Excelsior-knife



(No Model.)

H.'O.- OLO'YD. EXGELSIOR KNIFE.

Patented Apr. 18, 1893.

Svwewfoz WWW UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY O. CLOYD, OF UNION CITY, INDIANA.

EXCELSlOR-KNIFE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 495,879, dated April18, 1893.

Application filed August 6, 1891. Serial No. 401,831. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY C. CLOYD, a citizen of the United States,residing at Union City, in the county of Randolph and State of Indiana,have invented certain new and use ful Improvements in Excelsior Knives,of which the following is a specification, reference being bad thereinto the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to a new and improved excelsior knife, or planingiron for excelsior machines, and it has for its object to provide aknife that shall both score the wood and plane the shavings from theblock, leaving a perfectly smooth surface behind the knife, therebyobviating the necessity of using either an extra scoring-knife, or asmoothing plane behind the knife, as will be more fully shown.

The invention consists in forming in the front or uppersurfaoe of theknife a series of peculiarly shaped parallel grooves whereby the abovementioned results are accomplished; all of which will be more fullyhereinafter described and pointed out in the claim appended.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a perspective view showing theoperation of my improved knife. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the knife. Fig.3 is a sectional view taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is avertical sectional view showing the knife cutting a shaving from a blockof wood.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout theseveral views.

I am aware that planing irons having grooves on theirupper surfaces forthe purpose of obviating the necessity of separate scoring devices, havebeen used, but these knives are objectionable in that they leave agrooved surface behind them in the block of wood from which theexcelsior is cut, and furthermore, the grooves of said knives are squareor rectangular in shape, requiringthe maximum expencliture of power tooperate the knives, and producing a torn or ragged shaving, there beingno scoring or splitting of the wood previous to cutting the shaving, (itbeing practically gouged from the block,) thereby destroying itselasticity, a property very desirable, and necessary in excelsior. Myknife is designed to overcome these difliculties, producing a clean-cutshaving, and giving toit a helical form, thereby retaining all itselasticity; making said shaving by a positive draw cut 3 and dividingor'separating theshavings before they are cut from the block, there- .byproducing said shaving with a minimum of power.

Another advantage of my knife is, that it leaves a perfectly smoothsurface after each operation.

The advantage of having a smooth surface for the knife to operate on isobvious, it being desirable to have the shavings of a uniform thickness.It is manifest that if the knife has a smooth surface to operate on atevery stroke, all the shavings will be uniform in size.

In the construction shown, I provide in the upper surface of the knifea, a series of parallel grooves 19. The said grooves extend as far as itis intended to wear the knife, or they may extend the Whole length ofthe blade, and they are approximately V-shaped, having one of theirsides 1) vertical or perpendicular to the surface of the knife. Theknife is beveled on its underside, at the desired angle, to form thecutting edge, in the usual manner. The said beveling to form the cuttingedge of the knife, produces, on my knife, what appears in plan to be asaw-toothed edge as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings, the points 0 of theteeth being the highest points of the grooves. The knife is adjusted inthe cutterhead of an excelsior-machine so that the entire cutting edges01 of all the grooves are in the same horizontal plane, the cutting edgeof each groove starting at the point 0, and inclining rearwardly, asshown in Fig. 2, until it reaches the straight side of the next tooth,thus forming a continuous cutting edge, in a horizontal plane acrossthe'blade. The points of the teeth extending forward of the inclinedcutting edge, act as scorers, dividing or splitting the wood, so thateach cutting edge cuts a separate shaving, the rearward inclination ofthe edge, causing it to operate with a draw out. The inclined sides eofthe grooves cause the shaving to take a side wise motion,which, inaddition to the curling or convolute shape given to the shaving by theplaning iron, causes the shaving to take a helical form, which is verydesirable in excelsior.

The operation of my knife will perhaps be better understood if likenedto that of an ordinary plow, or rather a series of plows, the points ofthe teeth or cutters forming the plow-point or share; the inclined sideof the groove the mold-board, and the vertical side of the grooveforming the land-side,

It will be readily understood from the foregoing, that my knife will dothe maximum of work with the minimum expenditure of power, and that itmay be used in any excelsior-machine, singly or in series.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

An excelsior-kuife having its lower end beveled on its under side, and aseries of longitudinally-parallel grooves which form a serrated-likesurface upon the upper face of the knife, each serration or groovehaving one of its two Walls formed straight and extending the full depthof the grooves, at right angles to the surface of theknife, and theother wall extending in approximately a straight line from the lower orinner edge of the straight wall to the outer or upper edge of the nextstraight wall, whereby each groove will have a horizontal and a verticalcutting edge which when properly adjusted will cut the shaving of thedesired shape and leave the surface of the board practically smooth,substantially as described.

In testimony whereofI afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

HENRY C. OLOYD. Witnesses:

JAMES B. Ross, S. R. BELL.

